Coastal Classic recap

Coastal Classic recap

Firstly this race is 30km Max Adventure, get your shit together and change it. That said;

This year the aim of the Coastal Classic was to finish within cutoff for my friend who is 15 weeks pregnant which sounded like an easy task. I have to say I was honored when she asked me but as the race date loomed I was becoming more and more worried that my pace would effect her run as she is super fit and I’m not, but she assured me that with her recent bout of illness and lack of training that we would be fine …

The plan for race day was to walk the hills, enjoy the downhills and run the flats which for me with 9 months of MAF base building I was dreading. My MAF base hasn’t improved a lot but it served me well for UTA50 but that was just me relying on it and when I have tried to train with friends my 8:45min/km pace doesn’t work well with those that can run faster, so the plan for run the flats in Coastal Classic was not something I was looking forward to.
Race day the weather was perfect, not too hot and Sydney hasn’t had a lot of rain so the track was going to be dry, the usual race buzz was happening in Otford but the start was delayed thirty minutes which meant we would be finishing later and battling Sydney traffic to get home.

My strava profile of the course

The profile of Coastal Classic shows the first 2km as an uphill grind and I dread it every time. Hats off to those that run it, I can’t, and I like to to think that I can make up the time on the downhills which we took slower than normal as we didn’t want to take any chances with three (inc. ‘The Little One’) of us on course. Progressing down through the palms I needed to pee so I told my friend to keep going and I’ll catch up. A quick stop and then a foolish sprint to catch up proved a mistake as I tripped and went down on all fours. Sliding through the palms I picked myself up and there didn’t appear to be much damage, a cut on the finger and graze on the right knee was all I could see so I carried on. It took me about 3.5km to catch my friend as she descended down to Garie Beach and it was during this 3.5km I knew I was in for a world of hurt and that I was going to be letting her down, the realization was she is still fit and I’m not. Cruising in to Garie Beach aid station I felt OK and ate some orange quarters, a GU caffeine gel and water and grabbed a GU stroopwafel out of my pack and we walked out on to the beach while I ate.

I’m not good at eating and running and was caught out using this as an excuse straight away by my friend. The feeling of let down was compounding in my head, hoping to redeem myself on the climb out of Garie Beach I knew I would be strong on the stairs which gave me some confidence and as we made our way to Wattamolla aid station I was feeling good, my friend looked better. I had some concerns for her as she headed to the toilets in Wattamolla and I’m not sure if she was sick of me asking her if she was OK? I filled my water bottle and grabbed some banana pieces while I waited for her, she said everything was OK and fueled up and we headed out of Wattamolla.

It was at Little Marley Beach I really felt like crap, my hands were swollen with water retention and I was experiencing cramps in both my abductor muscles, after crossing the beach I let my friend go but she didn’t run far and at one stage out of sight I broke down sobbing with the feeling of letting her down and by the time we arrived at Marley Beach she was 50m ahead. I hate Marley Beach and the only saving grace is that at the top of the hill is the aid station. Her encouragement getting my arse up out of Marley was much appreciated even though I didn’t show it, her raw ability to tell you how it is plays a huge part in my friendship with her, there’s no bullshit and that’s a great comfort to have in a friend. The run from the aid station to Wedding Cake Rock went OK and she made a comment about my Darwinism and the tourists on the other side of the fence at this iconic landmark. It made me laugh about Natural Selection and evolution of the species but the laughs were short lived as the next 5km to the end was utter hell with cramps and mentally I was broken. My friend said to think of something that was positive that I wanted to do at the finish to which I said I can’t wait to remove my pack.

Gattaca (1997) – Anton & Vincent chicken swim

Crossing the last beach I retold the scene in the movie Gattaca (1997) where Vincent and Anton are swimming in a game of chicken and Anton asks Vincent how he did it, how did he beat his genetically superior brother? “This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back”. It’s a powerful line in the movie and means different things to different people but for me I feel it means that I can’t overcome my limitations and I can only overcome my perceived limitations, these are the limits that I have put on myself or society has put on me and sometimes we can overcome perceived limitations because the fear of not being able to accomplish your goal in face of the odds is greater than failure itself.

With the finish line looming we ran the last 100m to the line and finished in 5:26.

Crossing the finish line

There is positives I want to take away from this race; I’m hoping that I slowed my friend down for the better of her pregnancy because frankly I’m devastated that my race held her back. Deep down I know she wanted to go under five hours for this event, next time I run it with her it will be with a different me, this was the wake up call I needed.

-Wastey

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